NPR - All Things Considered

April 28, 2012

The U.S. is at the point now where students are leaving college with both a degree and also thousands of dollars in crushing debt, but NPR's education correspondent Claudio Sanchez says this didn't happen overnight - in fact, it's been a 30-year process. In trying to help students go to college, the federal government shifted away from grants toward loans, he says. States have also, on average, cut higher education funding for public institutions by 24 percent, effectively increasing the cost of tuition. That cost is often passed on to the student, again creating a higher necessity for loans and aid to get a degree.